K guys, shopping for this cabin has kinda been pretty great for me. I love buying house stuff! I suck at buying clothes and dressing myself, but I am pretty okay when it comes to knowing the right things to buy for spaces. Besides buying living room furniture back in 2012, I have never bought so many new things for one space, at one time. This is equivalent to Christmas, Mother’s Day, and my birthday all rolled into one.

We (The old man and I) made a spreadsheet for this shopping spree, pretty cool of us, huh? It made Jeff really happy, and I was semi-okay with it. Budgets used to stress me out, but I’m slowly coming around to them. We listed out all of the things that we would needed to furnish a cabin, and then prioritized them by importance, and room. Jeff is really into pivot tables and other cool spreadsheet shit, so he made this excel doc work really slick for us. Our budget was 4k, and it was pretty easy to go through the line items and pick out what we would purchase this summer, and what would get pushed into coming years. We decided that the most important stuff was fresh linens, bunk beds, and mattresses. With the remaining dough we would purchase a sofa and chairs for the living room, stools for the counter, and stuff for the kids to make them feel at home. We bought a Sega Genesis console for the basement kids’ lair (can’t wait to kick those little dudes’ butts at Sonic), and a trampoline for outside. They better not tell me they’re bored, or else. The rug budget didn’t make the cut this year (Jeff hates rugs, don’t ask me), so we will be rug-less but cabin-rich.

There are a few little things from the above list that I’m excited about too. We are huge on throw blankets, especially once the fall starts heading our way. We have throws all over the house here in Mpls, but I am not willing to sacrifice any of them for the cabin. Instead, I ordered a few for the cabin, and a basket to “throw” them in, get it? Throw? Sometimes it’s just spending a little bit on a few accessories that help to make a space feel finished. That’s why we decided to spend just a little bit on the rattan tray and tri-footed bowl. I plan on setting these on the coffee table, and I will fill that bowl with cabin crystals – we are still on this crystal kick. Oh right, the coffee table. We’ll be borrowing the coffee table I made earlier this summer from our new outdoor living area. A new-new coffee table will be a line item on our 2018 budget, I hope. Also, the outdoor rug from our backyard patio may become the indoor rug at the cabin – I’m not making any promises, we’ll just have to see how that works out. I’m also going to be bringing our giant fiddle leaf fig because it is at least a foot taller than the tallest room in our house. I think it will appreciate the light and ability to grow tall into the vaulted ceiling, plus I think the fig will be one of the only plants that will be down with me watering it every 10 days or so. We are bringing up our collection of enamelware, plus some new stuff so that we can have enough to serve 12 people. I had been buying the enamelware from West Elm until I realized that Urban Outfitters sold the same enamelware, but in sets (instead of individually) – that was a no-brainer. I love, love, love the olive drab canvas pillow from Camp Provisions, but I just couldn’t spend the dough this time around. Instead I ordered vintage military laundry bags from ebay, and am going to try and sew a poor-mans version of that pillow. That pillow basically sums up my vision for the space. I want the space to feel minimal with a tilt towards woodsy, campy, outdoor feelings via the use of army olive-drab canvas, cozy textiles and more shades of green repeated throughout the space. Typically our midwestern cabins are covered in red accents, black bears, deer antlers, and logs. My job is to figure out a way to make a cabin feel like a cabin, without all the off-the-shelf, cliché cabin, up-norf decor that comes with it.

Anyways, Imma say it again, we are stoked. Only 13 days until this deal is done, and then I’m gonna be chomping at the bit to share tons more with you guys. Thanks for listening to me!

P.S. The Vornado Fan is on sale r n. We have two (and love them) and I just bought a third, they’ll be coming to the cabin too.

Congrats on the cabin! Can’t wait to see how you make it beautiful. And I appreciate your realness about budgets — I am also renovating & furnishing a cabin, and the renovations it needed turned out to be way more extensive than we thought. So I’m making tough decisions about the pretty stuff, and it’s nice to be reminded that prioritizing is OK.

Hey, so sorry for the delay in response, time has gotten away from me. It has a low hum, as fans do but is not at all loud. It wouldn’t be louder than a tv or stereo if you were hanging out in your living room.

Can’t wait to see the changes begin. Clever to borrow items from your outdoor area for the cabin. And like how you plan to make it feel like a cabin but without resorting to cliche decor. I love my vornado fan; I’ve used them for decades.

We are moved in now and the indoor/outdoor furniture have worked well. We also stole a bunch of lamps and other odds and ends from home. It’s funny because I felt like I was borrowing in my house, take from one room to style another, and when I finally get to a plateau of sorts where everything was looking fully decorated – now we have the happy problem of having a cabin to furnish. Let the borrowing begin, again!

Can’t wait to see how your pillow project turns out! Before I even read your excerpt on the bottom, that pillow had caught my eye and I clicked through the link to realize it was surplus fabric from the military. My dad has a few old duffles around that haven’t been in use in eons. Think I’ve found a way to upcycle those and add some masculinity to our space!!

I would like to share how I did this with ya guys, but I don’t think it would be right since I am basically stealing the idea from another – only because I can’t afford the real deal. I will tell you that one military laundry basket will do the job exactly as seen here. I added a small 1/4″ stitch around the edge too. Hope that helps – super easy, sure you can figure it out with your dad’s duffel.

It’s so amazing to me what a strong sense of your personal style you have, and how consistent you are with it. Also how handy you are so you can bring that style to life on a budget! You’re mega talented. Thanks for sharing.

Hello! We are trying to get information on re-macraming(spell?) our folding lawn chairs. It’s for our cabin at Lake Tahoe and my mom wants the animal pattern that we currently have. Questions- what’s the size of the cord. Polyester? Where can we get it? Are there patterns out there?

I’m having the best time following along on your cabin adventure! We just bought one (nearby I think?) on Bone Lake near Luck/Milltown/Balsam and have had the best time beautifying it. Ours also came decorated…. woof.

We got the place last August, used it as much as we possibly could cram into the tail end of summer, and then wished and prayed for winter to go as quickly as possible. Now we’re downright cabin people, and it’s the very best. Wishing you the best time…. and next summer will come very soon! I can attest.

Yes! So excited to hear your about your cabin adventure! I can’t wait to officially feel like a cabin person, it’s just starting to settle in. We are cramming every little bit of time at the cabin in during August, thus the delay in my response to your comment.. Our place is half way between Hayward and Stone Lake, we are just starting to feel like we have the lay of the land. We are already planning ways to embrace the winter so we can enjoy the space all year, we’re hoping it’s our savior to the never-ending-winter feeling (not the other way around) ;)

Owning a cabin/lake house is a dream of my own and I’m so excited to read along as you and your family make it into something wonderful! especially creating a space that isn’t terribly cliche with “country” decor! Congrats and keep on keepin’ on!

Thanks, Jarod! I am going to try and do my best of skirting the kitshy cabin vibes, while also adding a bit of sophistication and modern minimalism. I hope up I can live up to your expectations. I would make me so happy if there were like a million cabin renovation blogs, so I feel ya!

You should (respectfully) hit up Enchanted Rock Garden and offer to tweak + zuzz their website in exchange for some sweet rock barters. It would probably take you like 15 minutes, they’d love the update (those home widget footers, tho), and you’d get some crystals. Winning all around! Just a thought. Cabin looks amaze.